What is a Penny Worth? Enough to Fund the Wayne Foundation

For this year's Super Blog Team Up, we each look back on key foundational issues that led to our comic book journey. Yours truly had his passion for this medium sparked by Batman Family #13, although the road to this issue began years earlier.

It all began when Batman and Robin left town, leaving the infamous Tri-State Gang with a golden opportunity to plunder Gotham City uncontested. Nurturing his budding detective skills, Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth seeks to track down and disrupt the Gang's activities, leaving behind a trail for his employer to pursue. When Batman and his young ward return to the Batcave, ascertaining Alfred is in pursuit the Tri-State crooks, the Dynamic Duo follow his trail. Although they, like Alfred, are captured by the Gang... all three escape and each confront the felons. When Alfred sees his beloved Master Bruce and Master Dick the target of a dislodged boulder, he pushed them out of the way at the cost of his life. Pennyworth perishes, leaving behind his heartbroken masters.

In fact, Alfred was in a deep deathlike coma, and when his body is retrieved from his mausoleum by physician Brandon Crawford, he enters a dramatic new phase in his life! Simultaneous to these events, Bruce decides to fund a new charity enterprise with his vast wealth, naming it the Alfred Foundation. While this was to honor the memory of noble Mr. Pennyworth, Crawford's experimental research unlocked an ignoble side of this same man! From Crawford's radical radiation treatment, Alfred was transformed into the unearthly anomaly known as the Outsider!

In his new identity, the Outsider sought to disrupt and destroy the lives of the two men whom his alter ego Alfred cherished deeply. Unleashing from the behind the scenes the man-monster known as Blockbuster, the Grasshopper Gang, and even Batman's future Justice League colleague Zatanna against the Caped Crusaders... the Outsider's schemes were designed to tear away the confidence of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson until they ended up as he felt they had left him. But the memory of their fallen friend Alfred helped them to endure.

Eventually, Batman and Robin were able to vanquish the Outsider, and restore Alfred Pennyworth to the man he once was. Although forgetting his brief path towards villainy, the experience subconsciously shaped his life, subtly hardening him as had young Bruce when faced with his own trauma years earlier. Meanwhile, the foundation of their friendship endured and grew, just as the foundation named after Alfred transformed.

In fact, the Alfred Foundation was rechristened the Wayne Foundation, still endeavoring to help the underserved in the community through monetary means, just as its founders had through their costumed crimefighting. While these events transpired on Earth-One, on the parallel planet of Earth-Two, that world's Bruce Wayne had himself founded his own version of the Wayne Foundation. This was seen in a similar structure to that of its counterpart, as each Wayne built a Wayne Foundation Penthouse. 

Although the Earth-One Penthouse resided in Gotham City, the Earth-Two Penthouse resided in Metropolis, perhaps due to that world's Wayne having divested himself of his business entanglements to pursue a position as Gotham City's police commissioner. This may also be due to the fact that the Justice Society made their home in Gotham City, unlike the Justice League which headquarters their operations in space orbiting the Earth, and so performed charitable works there. The nearest city to Gotham, Metropolis, was Bruce’s next best option for his Foundation. By that point, Alfred Beagle had retired from being a valet, exploring his thespian side in New Stratford where he could put on his own performance as an “outsider” on the stage.

While Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-One would on occasion revert to his Outsider alter ego, his doppelgänger Alfred Beagle had a different type of physical transformation, as he in his younger years engaged in extensive physical fitness to shed some girth, becoming more gaunt like his cosmic twin

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Batman Family #13 was the first issue purchased by a young Doppelgänger aka Mallo, founder of this blog, and had a profound impact in his comic journey. Subsequent purchases of further comics, highlighting the adventures of an older Bruce Wayne's daughter Helena "The Huntress" Wayne along with his teammates the Justice Society, and their team ups with the Justice League sparked an intense interest not only in comic books, but also in the Multiverse. Points of divergence, where one man retains his station as the trusted butler of the Wayne family, while another man transforms into a supervillain for a time. Such is the shear beauty.... of the DC Multiverse!

Super-Blog Team-Up: Foundations

Date: August 21st 2024

Our comic book  journey takes us to foundational works that ignited your collecting passion. We cover works that built the basis of a character such as a 1st appearance or a major storyline development. We can consider a major story or plot line that had major foundational impact on a universe, set of characters or over all genre. A foundation can be a start point, a central point in history, a trigger, a catalyst. The sky is the limit.. the Foundation begins now.

Participants:

Between the Pages Blog - Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Star Trek 

https://www.betweenthepagesblog.com/2024/08/everything-i-need-to-know-i-learned-from-star-trek.html

TEAL Productions/NewsPrint Commando - Witzend A Foundational Comic

Superhero Satellite: The Comics Digest. A foundational entryway to comics from Archie to DC Blue Ribbon and Beyond.

https://charltonhero.wordpress.com/2024/08/21/super-blog-team-up-foundations-a-digest-story/

Dave’s Comic Heroes Blog - Justice League Of America 200.

https://davescomicheroes.blogspot.com/2024/08/justice-league-of-america-200.html

*51 - My First Next Issue, Incredible Hulk #333

https://asterisk51.blogspot.com/2024/08/my-first-next-issue-incredible-hulk-333.html

The Source Material Comics Podcast - “Traumatic Resonance - What I Learned from Deb Whitman” -  https://www.spreaker.com/episode/super-blog-team-up-traumatic-resonance-what-i-learned-from-deb-whitman--61072981

DC Multiverse - What is a Penny Worth? Enough to Fund the Wayne Foundation 

https://earth-one-earth-two.blogspot.com/2024/08/what-is-penny-worth-enough-to-fund.html